Ann Ball

Like the cats I keep as pets, I am a person who is curious about almost everything. Always have been and expect I always will be.

It was curiosity about the saints that led me into the church and into my career as a Catholic writer. It is also my curiosity that keeps my day job interesting.

Many of my friends tell me I have a split personality. After all, I spend my days managing a security guard company -- yup, I sometimes carry a gun. Then I creep home and late at night or early in the morning I jump into my Catholic writer personality.

Before I "freaked out and joined the wacky world of security," I was a schoolteacher for many years, both in my native state of Texas and in California. I hold a B.S.ed from the University of Houston; I figured I had taught school so long that I should go back and get an education degree.

Writing? People ask me all the time how to write. I can only tell them that if they want to be a writer they have to write; not talk about it, just do it. I have always written things. I remember getting up in the middle of the night when I was a child to scribble down a poem or little story. When Mama died, we found some examples of my earliest work among her papers. They were pretty awful.

Once a photographer for the local Catholic paper asked me how I wrote; he wanted to get his photo in a natural setting. I started telling him, "Well, first of all I don't usually have on this many clothes." He looked shocked and turned to one of my A.K.'s (acquired kids) and repeated his question. The kid said, "Well, first of all she doesn't usually have on this many clothes." Seeing the photographer's stricken look, the kid continued, "She is usually in her housecoat with no shoes on, hunched over that computer." On a good Saturday, I sometimes get up around 4:30 or 5 in the morning and leave the computer for the evening after midnight.

I have six cats and there are usually a few of them draped over, under, or around the computer. When I'm not there, I like to read, garden, do arts and crafts, cook and make things using the herbs I grow. When my foster son Raul first came to live with me, he saw the herb cabinet and told a friend he had moved in with a bruja (witchdoctor).

I have a daughter, Joanna, who is a tech sergeant with the U.S. Air Force currently serving in Okinawa. She calls me "Granola" because she says my personality is fruits and nuts.

My son, Sam, is the quality and environmental protection manager for Laurin Maritime.

He tells people, "My mom is the only person I know who can write a cookbook one year and follow it up the next year with The Catholic Book of the Dead!"

I am blessed with eight grandchildren. I just wish I could install a volume control on them.

My curious nature makes the reading and research part of my job the most interesting, and I particularly love the modern saints. Pope John Paul II is my hero for acting on the call of Vatican II for more saintly models from all walks of life. My favorite cause is that of the merry Mexican martyr, Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J. I find it horrifying that so few Americans realize the persecutions of the church that were right next door less than a lifetime ago. I find it equally sad that so few of our American Hispanic Catholics don't know about their own heroes. You can read more about Blessed Miguel and some of the Mexican martyrs on my website: annball.com. As we say in Texas, "Ya'll come!"

Bibliography:

Modern Saints: Their Lives and Faces. Vol. 1. (Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books and Publishers, 1983 )
A Litany of Mary. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1988)
Holy Names of Jesus. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitgor Publising Division, 1990)
The Persecuted Church. (Avon, New Jersey: Magnificat Press, 1990)
Modern Saints: Their Lives and Faces Vol. 2. (Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books and Publishers, 1990)
A Litany of Saints. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1993)
A Handbook of Catholic Sacramentals. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1991)
Catholic Traditions in Cooking. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1993)
Catholic Book of the Dead. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1995)
Blessed Miguel Pro: 20th Century Mexican Martyr. (Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books and Publishers, 1996)
Catholic Traditions in Crafts. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1997)
Catholic Traditions in the Garden. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1998)
Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1998)
A Saint for Your Name: Saints for Girls. revision of the work by Albert J. Nevins, M.M. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 2000)
A Saint for Your Name: Saints for Boys. revision of the work by Albert J. Nevins, M.M. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 2000)
Faces of Holiness: Modern Saints in Photos and Words vol. 2. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 2001)
The Saints Guide to Joy and Laughter. (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Servant Publications, 2001)
Prayers for Prisoners. with Max, S.F.O. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 2002)
Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotion and Practices. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, coming fall 2002)
Young Faces of Holiness. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, coming 2003)
OSV's Catholic Encyclopedia for Children. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, coming 2003)